ArmInfo. In Armenia, economic activity growth in January-February 2025 slowed significantly to 4.1% per annum (from 13.6% in the same period of 2024). Moreover, the industrial sector, which acted as a growth driver a year earlier, is now in double-digit decline.
According to the final data of the RA Statistical Committee, this was accompanied by a deterioration in the foreign trade trend from several-fold growth to a significant decline. According to statistics, such a pronounced slowdown in economic activity growth in January-February 2025 was largely due to the deterioration in the annual dynamics of the industrial sector from 28.9% growth to 19.4% decline and a strong slowdown in the growth of the trade sector from 24.1% to 7.8%.
At the same time, the service sector managed to accelerate in annual growth from 5.2% to 12.4%, which was also noted in the construction sector, where growth accelerated from 10.8% to 12.2%. The annual dynamics of the energy complex improved significantly - with an exit from the 4.2% decline to 8.8% growth. The dynamics of the agricultural sector are not provided in this statistical report.
According to statistical data for January-February 2025, the trade sector holds the lead in absolute value with a volume of 822.7 billion drams ($2.1 billion). The second place in terms of volume is occupied by the service sector - 556.1 billion drams ($1.4 billion), the third place is occupied by the industrial sector - 380.5 billion ($959 million), the fourth position, due to the lack of data from the agricultural sector, is occupied by the construction sector - 44.6 billion drams ($112.5 million). The volume of electricity generation in January-February 2025 amounted to 1786.2 million kWh, of which 867.2 million kWh in February alone.
At the same time, in February 2025 compared to February 2024, economic activity also stalled in growth to 1.5% (from 16.3% a year earlier), and in February alone, the dynamics came out of a 45.3% decline to 5.3% growth (against the dynamics for February 2024 coming out of a 45.1% decline to 11.2% growth).
Moreover, in February 2025, the industrial sector lingered in decline, only slowing down the pace from 41.3% to 0.6%, whereas a year earlier in the same month it was possible to bring the dynamics from a 43.1% decline to 18.9% growth. In February, in addition to the industrial sector, the service sector and the energy complex also lingered in decline, and only the construction sector and the trade sector managed to come out of the decline to double-digit growth.
On an annual basis (February 2025 to February 2024), all sectors demonstrated an upward trend, except for the industrial sector, which was in decline (26.6%). In particular, the highest annual growth was shown by the construction sector and the service sector - 12.7% and 12.1%, respectively, followed by the energy sector - 7.3% and the trade sector - 6%.
A year earlier, in February 2024 to February 2023, almost all sectors, except for the energy complex, which was in decline (2.9%), showed growth: the industrial sector - by 36.4%, the trade sector - by 28.3%, the construction sector - by 11.7%, the service sector - by 6%.
Against this background, Armenia's foreign trade turnover in January-February 2025 amounted to 1.1 trillion drams ($2.8 billion), down 48% per annum (versus a 2-fold increase a year ago). This is due to a significant decline in both exports and imports - by 40.3% and 54.2% per annum, respectively, while last year both indicators showed significant growth - 2.6 times (exports) and 73.2% (imports). As a result, the absolute value of exports in January-February 2025 amounted to 413.2 billion drams ($1.04 billion), and imports - 692.7 billion drams ($1.74 billion).
In February 2025, compared to February 2024, foreign trade turnover fell by 61% due to a decrease in both exports by 67.7% and imports by 55.2%, while a year earlier in February 2024, compared to February 2023, foreign trade turnover showed a significant increase of 2.2 times due to a significant increase in both exports by 2.9 times and imports by 79.9%.
Since 2023, the methodology for calculating the volume of generated electricity has changed in statistical reports, in particular, the volume of electricity generated by autonomous producers has also begun to be taken into account. For the agricultural sector, data are published only in quarterly and annual statistical reports. (The average calculated exchange rate of the dram in January-February 2025 was 396.74 drams / $ 1).
